Passate

/ Conversation Piece

19/05/2017 - 17/09/2017

The Galleria Nazionale is pleased to host the ”la Caixa” Contemporary Art Collection in a conversation with a select group of works framed by its classical architecture.

Under the title Conversation Piece, name derived from a sculptural ensemble by Juan Muñoz, the exhibition, curated by Nimfa Bisbe, relates a dozen-odd works by artists with different poetic voices. As suggested by the expressive gestures of Muñoz’s three characters, the show has the assertiveness of dialogue, but also that of contrast and intrigue, and is driven by the search for revelatory meaning. The interaction between the works follows a specific pattern, established on the one hand by the continuous quiet of the Minimalist aesthetic, and on the other by the threefold relationship between architecture, sculpture and the human figure.

In this exhibition, the formalist interpretation of the geometry of Minimalist art is dispelled by the strength of the experiences, symbolisms and fictions of the works. Form is of course important, but the artists represented here draw on it to support personal poetics and references to the reality of our world. Moreover, the plays on contrast and the affinity between the various artistic proposals displayed in the show trigger multiple readings that, in turn, are able to generate other different readings.

The ”la Caixa” Contemporary Art Collection

Besides providing a significant range of readings of the art produced during the last forty years, today the “la Caixa” Contemporary Art Collection promotes new dialogues and stories intended to extend the meaning and current relevance of the works. Indeed, this collection has gradually shaped a space for exploring and creating narratives, without overlooking its mission of recognising, preserving and representing the art of our age.

Conceived in 1985 as a project that was open to contemporary art, it has grown to include about a thousand major international works of art that bring together the memory of art from the past four decades, as well as offering a far-reaching vision of art’s on-going exploration of today’s world.